By Joe Hoppe


Vodacom Group Ltd. said Thursday that first-quarter revenue rose, underpinned by a resilient financial performance in most of its markets and South Africa in particular.

The South Africa-based telecommunications company said revenue for the three months ended June 30 was 26.05 billion South African rand ($1.52 billion), compared with ZAR24.78 billion for the same period in 2021.

Service revenue--a closely-watched metric in the telecom sector--grew 5.2%, or 2.9% on a normalized basis to ZAR20.15 billion, with a 3.0% rise in South Africa and a 10.4% rise in international operations.

The company said financial-services revenue increased 9.3% on year to ZAR2.1 billion, and would have increased by 19.7% if not for mobile money levies in Tanzania. The levies were reduced by 43% in July.

Vodacom said inflation continues to accelerate in most of its markets, increasing the cost-of-living, and it was accelerating product delivery to provide greater value to customers to compensate. It was also increasing efforts to lower costs for poorer communities.


Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-21-22 0139ET